PIC Donna is not a Revelation
Apr. 8th, 2008 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowIt’s kind of cool sitting back and seeing a good portion of Who fandom realise, that no, Catherine Tate is not going to be the end of the show, and yes, Donna really is quite excellent. On the other hand, a few things about the way people are realising this are bugging me – particularly when people go on about how much Donna has improved since The Runaway Bride.
Thing is:
1. Donna did not scream all the way through The Runaway Bride. She did do an awful lot of yelling throughout the first sixteen minutes (yes, I timed it) – however, yelling loudly is a perfectly valid response to being abducted by aliens while walking down the aisle on your wedding day and then being kidnapped by robot Santas and forced to jump out of a moving vehicle on a motorway.
2. The quiet contemplative Donna that we saw with her Grandfather in Partners in Crime, made two wonderful appearances in TRB. Firstly, at minute sixteen (i.e. at the quarter way though the episode point), in the rooftop scene, and then later in the final scene of the show. Quiet contemplative Donna is not a new invention for Partners in Crime. She already existed.
3. And another thing, why is yelling every now and again a bad thing? The criticism smacks of sexism for me, and always has – as if a woman should be seen and not heard. The Doctor can be loud and ranty every now and again and while we moan about this sometimes, we don’t ever name it as our number one reason why he shouldn’t be a main character.
4. Catherine Tate did not just learn how to act. She was quite magnificent in The Runaway Bride as well. And, strangely enough, she managed to get through that episode as without using a catchphrase as well. The fact that anyone assumed that she would be anything less than a professional actor and force RTD to turn Donna into Lauren Cooper is ridiculous at best and insulting at worst.
Donna has not had a personality overhaul. The only particular change in Donna between the beginning of TRB and the beginning of PIC is that she’s warmed to the Doctor, revamped her outlook on the world and has a new set of priorities, which make her more appealing to the audience. And of course, the brilliance of The Runaway Bride is that we get to witness this character development over the course of the episode. There is very little difference between the Donna at the end of TRB and the Donna we see again in PIC
Okay, rant over (sorry f-list, I know I’m preaching to the converted, but I needed to get it off my chest).
Thing is:
1. Donna did not scream all the way through The Runaway Bride. She did do an awful lot of yelling throughout the first sixteen minutes (yes, I timed it) – however, yelling loudly is a perfectly valid response to being abducted by aliens while walking down the aisle on your wedding day and then being kidnapped by robot Santas and forced to jump out of a moving vehicle on a motorway.
2. The quiet contemplative Donna that we saw with her Grandfather in Partners in Crime, made two wonderful appearances in TRB. Firstly, at minute sixteen (i.e. at the quarter way though the episode point), in the rooftop scene, and then later in the final scene of the show. Quiet contemplative Donna is not a new invention for Partners in Crime. She already existed.
3. And another thing, why is yelling every now and again a bad thing? The criticism smacks of sexism for me, and always has – as if a woman should be seen and not heard. The Doctor can be loud and ranty every now and again and while we moan about this sometimes, we don’t ever name it as our number one reason why he shouldn’t be a main character.
4. Catherine Tate did not just learn how to act. She was quite magnificent in The Runaway Bride as well. And, strangely enough, she managed to get through that episode as without using a catchphrase as well. The fact that anyone assumed that she would be anything less than a professional actor and force RTD to turn Donna into Lauren Cooper is ridiculous at best and insulting at worst.
Donna has not had a personality overhaul. The only particular change in Donna between the beginning of TRB and the beginning of PIC is that she’s warmed to the Doctor, revamped her outlook on the world and has a new set of priorities, which make her more appealing to the audience. And of course, the brilliance of The Runaway Bride is that we get to witness this character development over the course of the episode. There is very little difference between the Donna at the end of TRB and the Donna we see again in PIC
Okay, rant over (sorry f-list, I know I’m preaching to the converted, but I needed to get it off my chest).
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 06:45 pm (UTC)However, I got good Donna stuff already. Yay! I know it's frustrating for a lot of people that she "was just doing this stuff for the Doctor," but I mean...that was a LOT of effort she put in. She honed a lot of initiative and creativity of her own, and it's...it's almost like being intrigued by the Doctor has turned out beneficially for a character, holy crap New Who! I want to see how she uses these sneaky awesome investigative skills.
Also, though this stuff came about inadvertently due to casting issues and RTD's apparent misconceptions of parent/child relationships, but it turned out well for me: We have here a woman with a broken heart courtesy of her fiance trying to kill her, a lifelong verbally abusive mother, and a recently dead father. That's some fucking spectacular character baggage, man. It makes her make so much sense already, and I hope it'll be used to good affect.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 09:04 pm (UTC)I want to see how she uses those sneaky investigative skills as well. While I love CT and DT together, I do hope they get separated every now and again so we can see Donna be awesome.
I wouldn't call her mother verbally abusive, but it is clear Donna doesn't get the kind of support from her that she needs. And Donna does have some wonderful character baggage that I hope the writers explore - the large personality is hiding the vulnerability at her core.